


you'll be lifted up (and you'll be there)

by herwhiteknight



Series: Highschool Heartbeats [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, PE teacher yang, Slice of Life, Teacher AU, english teacher blake, implied homophobic language, science teacher ilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:16:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22065376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herwhiteknight/pseuds/herwhiteknight
Summary: Yang sprains her wrist over spring break and rumors spread like wildfire as to the cause.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: Highschool Heartbeats [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1125795
Comments: 10
Kudos: 233





	you'll be lifted up (and you'll be there)

**Author's Note:**

> hey wow more of this!! this one got away from me, i SWORE i would just write fluffy slice of life fics for this series but uh....... well it didn't quite happen that way for this one. 
> 
> anYWAY. HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ilia shuffled her papers as she sat at her desk, tapping them neatly against their border to level them out. She scanned through the headers of the lesson plans for each chapter, idly listening in on the students chatter before the morning bell. Most of it was just wild spring break stories using descriptors that Ilia _so wished_ she could unhear the second they processed in her brain. But one particular conversation thread piqued her interest.

“..see her arm? Looked like a fresh cast!”

Ilia glanced up from her outline, an overview of classical genetics just to ease them back into the school environment, and found the speaker Riley chatting with her _almost girlfriend_ Samantha. “You don’t think something _bad_ happened to her over spring break, do you?” she whispered quietly, her books already out on her desk.

Ilia couldn’t help but grin as she watched the concern furrow at Samantha’s brows as she leaned closer to Riley. _Poor kid was caring to a fault, to the point where it occasionally got in the way of her schoolwork_ , Ilia thought, setting her pages to the side as she stood from her desk and headed to the whiteboard.

Since the bell had not yet rung for class, her students paid her no mind as she uncapped a marker and began writing out the details for the day’s lesson. Which suited Ilia just fine, she’d just strolled over to eavesdrop a little easier on the continuing speculation.

Samantha shot a nervous glance over to the front of the class where Ilia was writing, but Riley continued, uncaring. “Something _bad_ ? To _the_ Mrs. Xiao Long?” Riley asked incredulously, shaking her head. Ilia barely managed to keep back a snort. _Oh, Yang would get a kick out of hearing that one._

The answering sigh from Samantha’s lips was almost more than Ilia could handle. _Oh god, another enamoured gay._ “You’re right…,” she said wistfully. “As if something bad could _ever_ happen to her… she’d probably just heroically deal with whatever it was that was so horrible, save the day with a wink, flexing those big muscles of hers…”

“I could flex my muscles,” Riley grumbled, and _yeah,_ that was about the limit that Ilia could stand without interjecting.

She capped her pen with a flourish and set it back down on the ledge in front of the whiteboard before turning around and dropping her palms onto Samantha’s desk with a slightly understated _slap._ Didn’t want to scare the girls _too_ badly after all. “Sounds like _someone_ over here is a little in love with the gym teacher,” Ilia waggled her eyebrows.

Samantha burned a brilliant red, spluttering and looking anywhere _but_ Ilia’s knowing expression. “I, uh.. Miss Amitola, I didn’t - I wasn’t-”

“And it seems like _someone else,_ ” Ilia said, turning to Riley, who folded her arms and leaned back in her chair resolutely. Ilia grinned again, recognizing that fire in her eyes. It was a big reason why she had a soft spot for her. “Seems like she’s a little _jealous_ of Xiao Long and her big muscles and charming winks.”

Riley didn’t budge, but pink tinged at her ears as her jaw set resolutely, fighting embarrassment. “Stuff it, Amitola,” she finally said through gritted teeth. Samantha whipped around to stare at her in disbelief while Ilia just lifted her hands off of Samantha’s desk in surrender.

“Don’t worry, Snaps,” Ilia laughed, reaching over to flip up the rim of Riley’s snapback that she _definitely_ wasn’t allowed to be wearing in class. Riley snatched at it defensively with a grumble. “Everyone falls in love with _the Mrs. Xiao Long_ just a little bit for awhile. They all get over her eventually. Once the… _right person_ comes along and opens their eyes to something new.” Ilia’s smile softened as she flicked her gaze over to Samantha, who was doodling hearts all over the corner of her notebook with Yang’s initials in them.

_Good fucking god,_ Ilia winced internally. “Give her some time,” Ilia patted Riley’s arm sympathetically. “And, as much as I hate repressing your individuality, especially with a style like _that_ ,” Ilia indicated Riley’s _entire_ butch aesthetic, “please take your hat off in class. Vice Principal Schnee would have my head if she caught anyone disrespecting dress code.”

“Yes, Miss Amitola….”

“Good!” she declared loudly as the bell finally rang. “Now class, I trust you all had a good spring break, but it’s time to crack open the textbooks again.”

* * *

“ _The_ Mrs. Xiao Long?” Yang repeated with a slowly unfurling grin as they hung out in the staff room during lunch hour. “ _The_ ? That’s what she said?” Yang leaned forward on the couch, bracing her elbows against her knees and looking like the true lesbian goddess of Beacon High that all the girls looked up to. Beside her, Blake was sitting in a posture that was _much_ more befitting of a teacher, though she wasn't above smacking Yang on the back of the head with a small disapproving tisk.

"After drooling over your muscles for a good solid minute, yeah," Ilis supplied and Yang hooted with laughter, jumping up from the couch and strutting around the large meeting table for a couple of imagined victory laps. 

" _The_ great Mrs. XL strikes again!" she thrust her fists up in the air like Rocky, lifting her chin dramatically to sharpen her profile. "Where the XL stands for…. Uh. Um, extra.. lesbian..?"

"Oh babe," Blake let out a long-suffering sigh as she patted her wife's cast. "Leave the poetry to me next time, won't you?"

Yang let out a hiss of put on and entirely _fake_ pain as she cradled her right arm protectively. "Ouch! Hey! Careful how you handle the invalid!" she grumbled playfully. "Kiss it better?"

"God, such a _softie_ , imagine if the students found out-"

"Stop-" Yang attempted to fend off Blake's teasing pokes with her good arm.

"Yang, there you are. I need you to come with me immediately please," Weiss's voice cut through the laughter like ice, halting them immediately at the seriousness of her tone.

Ilia, Blake and Yang all turned to where Weiss was standing tensely in the doorway. Yang didn't hesitate, standing and striding over to Weiss's side. "Weiss, what is it?" she asked tightly. It was very unusual to see Weiss look this serious.

Weiss just turned and began to walk out, expecting Yang to follow. "You might want to come too, Blake," she added over her shoulder. "Ilia, extra supervision on the grounds, please."

“Yes, ma’am.”

Tense silence followed in their wake as Weiss led them out the front doors and towards the school parking lot. Behind them, Ilia split off, going around to the back of the school to soccer fields. As they approached the farthest section of the lot where students were allowed to park, loud, obviously heated shouts could be heard between the rows of vehicles.

“Yang, whatever you do, don’t let your anger get the better of you,” Weiss warned, shooting a look over at Blake - an obvious silent _keep her in line_ flashing between them.

“I’ve gone four years, Weiss, I-”

“-think you can tell _me_ what to do?!” an ugly brazen voice shouted. A sick thud. “ _That_ will teach you-”

“Get the _fuck_ away from her!”

Yang picked up her pace without even thinking, coming onto the scene in shock. A large circle of students crowded around the towering figure of Rick Harlen, red-faced and spitting in anger. She couldn’t tell who he was shouting at. “Hey, hey. What the _hell_ is going on here?!” Yang pushed through the crowd, holding her language back just barely as Weiss followed behind her, while Blake went about dispersing the onlookers.

“Miss Xiao Long-” Rick had the audacity to even _start_.

“Shut it,” she snapped at him, finally clearing through the crowd to see Sam on the ground while Riley kneeled next to her, blood crusting around her mouth from a broken nose and sporting a rapidly blackening eye.

“Riley, can you stand?” she asked gently, reaching down to take her hand.

She stood, wobbling, but balanced enough for her to walk. “I… yeah, but-”

Yang saw the way her eyes glanced down almost unconsciously to Sam, who was still on the ground, but alert and conscious. “I’ll take care of her, but you need to go with Mrs. Belladonna to the nurse’s station, alright?”

Blake caught her eyes through the last of the students milling around and nodded. “Come with me, Riley,” she said gently as she led her back towards the school. “You can lean against me if you need.”

“I don’t _think so_ , Mr. Harlen,” Yang growled, stopping him dead in his tracks as he tried to slink away. “Keep an eye on him,” Yang muttered under her breath to Weiss as she knelt next to Sam, taking Riley’s previous spot. “Are you hurt?” she asked, as calmly as she could, keeping her anger in check.

“I’m okay,” Samantha replied shakily, slowly pushing herself up off the ground. She looked a little ragged, with skinned palms and dirt covering one side of her face from where she had been knocked down, but otherwise no worse for wear. “He…,” her gaze darted over Yang’s shoulder and leaned closer under Yang’s shadow nervously. Yang noted the unconscious cue and shifted closer to the shaking girl to put her body between Sam and Rick even more. “He pushed me down. But then Riley jumped in and took a swing at him.”

"And exactly _why_ did you push Miss Folton down, Mr. Harlen?" Weiss asked, and Yang caught her stern glare out of the corner of her eye and felt unbelievably satisfied with the knowledge that its full weight was bearing down on that asshole bully.

"Ah, sh- she was just saying some stuff, getting in the way and coming after me-"

Samantha's eyes widened in disbelief and Yang's lips tightened in a frown. "And what exactly did you say to him, Sam?" she asked gently, lifting her arm to her shoulder, resting her hand there, being mindful of her cast. 

Samantha's eyes tracked to Yang's arm. "I.. I know it wasn't right," she started hesitantly, and Yang felt a tremor overtake her tiny frame as she continued. "B-but Riley, um. She.. she said something a-about _you and Mrs. Belladonna,_ a joke about… the cast and.. well, Rick, he… he overheard and he called you two…."

Sam trailed off, like a frail deer, her eyes darting away, hitting the ground. Yang's frown deepened - she could only imagine what words Rick Harlen would have to say about her and her wife.

"And then what?" Yang encouraged gently, keeping her hand braced reassuringly at her shoulder. 

"And then I… I don't know what came over me, Mrs. Xiao Long!" she cried, in clear distress. "He was just saying so many mean things about you and Mrs. Belladonna so I just yelled at him that he was only saying those things because he was jealous and that he'd never have as good of a relationship that the two of you have, and that's when he came over and pushed me! It's all my fault, I'm so sorry Mrs. Xiao Long!"

A sudden weight careened into her midriff, and Yang automatically wrapped her arms around the girl, rubbing her back reassuringly. "It's not your fault," she said soothingly.

" _Not her fault_?!" Rick exclaimed, outraged, advancing on Yang. 

"If you take another step towards my colleague, Mr. Harlen, I'll see you suspended,” Weiss said, her icy glare unwavering in its deadly focus on a cowed Rick. 

“You’ll be lucky if she doesn’t suspend you anyway, Rick,” Yang said, unable to keep her tone from becoming scathing. She could feel her spotless record beginning to darken, and she rolled her neck to the side, cracking it dangerously to shake off some of her rising anger. “But we’ll let the principal make that call,” she added, offering her hand to Sam and pulling her up to stand with her.

“Thank you, Yang,” Weiss murmured under her breath. “Principal Rose and I will handle it from here,” she said, already holding her phone up to her ear to call Ruby. 

“Let’s go see how Riley is doing, okay?” Yang said gently to Sam as she wrapped her arm around her shoulders and led her slowly away from the scene. Her expression was starting to settle into some kind of blankness - in what Yang hoped wasn’t shock. “You still with me?”

At her voice, Sam blinked, hard. Shook her head to clear her glassy eyes. “I’m okay,” she muttered, glancing up at Yang, then away. She looked like she was fighting with something. Yang walked by her side quietly, giving her space. 

She didn’t speak again until Yang had lead her into Nurse Nikos’ office, where Pyrrha had poked her head out momentarily of her treatment room to tell them to just have a seat for another moment. Riley settled herself down on the chair next to Yang uneasily. Her toe tapped the at the tile while she rubbed dents into her thighs as she rocked slightly in her seat. Finally, “Why do people have to… be like that?”

“Like what, hon?” Yang asked gently, reaching out and taking one of Sam’s hands that had turned into a sharp claw, digging worry into her kneecap. 

“So…. so _mean_ ,” she said in a whisper. “Riley and I… Riley was just… she made a stupid joke about your cast, I just.. I didn’t know how to react, so I laughed - she knows more about…”

Yang just rubbed her thumb against the back of Sam’s hand reassuringly, fighting back a small, completely inappropriate grin at Sam’s expense. Knowing Riley’s humor, she could only imagine what kind of _stupid joke_ Riley had made about Mrs. Xiao Long, well known to be an absolutely unapologetic lesbian, and _her cast._ Then she processed the rest of Sam’s words. “There are people in the world like him, unfortunately,” she said sadly, wrapping her arm around her shoulders again.

“But.. _why_ , I don’t… they’re just like us,” Sam whispered, opening her palms and staring at the torn skin. “I’m…. _I’m_ just like them,” she admitted to her scars. “Why do I have to be _different_ ? Why does it mean I’m _wrong_?”

“You’re _not_ wrong,” Yang replied soft, but vehement. “Nothing about what you’re going through right now is wrong, Samantha. You’re discovering yourself. Your _true_ self. And it’s not easy right now. But what makes it easier is having friends and family who support you to help you through it all.”

“Family,” Sam said, and her voice went dark, shredded like her palms. “Right.”

Sadness twisted at the corner of Yang’s lips at her tone. “Hey,” Yang said, lifting Sam’s face with a gentle touch. “Family is who you choose. Blood doesn’t define bonds. If you need a better family, you can start right here. With me. And Blake.”

A small look of confusion traced across Sam’s brows before an uncertain smile lit up her eyes. “Your wife,” she said, the word tumbling uncertainly for her lips, but lifting her entire expression all the same. 

“That’s right,” Yang nodded, grinning back.

“It feels nice to say that,” Sam said, leaning her head against Yang’s shoulder. “It sounds right.” 

Yang just hummed, squeezing her shoulders as they waited for Pyrrha to tell them that they could see Riley. Which took only a few moments longer after the words faded into a pleasant silence. 

“Come on in, you two,” Pyrrha said, opening the door to the room. Yang could hear Blake’s voice already inside, talking soothingly to Riley. “She’s doing fine, no concussion. But she should just rest today and take it easy.”

“Why don’t you go on in, Sam? Don’t want to crowd the poor girl,” Yang gestured inside as Blake stepped out to give her space. 

“I… yeah, okay,” Sam said, seeming suddenly nervous. And _oh,_ Yang knew that look. That heightened nervous energy, the wide eyes, the small unconscious grin. Blake gave Sam’s shoulder a gentle squeeze as she passed by her on the way out and shut the door behind them.

“They’ll figure it out eventually,” Yang grinned, lacing her fingers together behind her head and arching her back, feeling much more at ease now that both Riley and Sam were looked after. She’d have to check in with Weiss and Ruby later about Rick though. _Ugh_.

“Samantha at least seems more perceptive about her feelings than a certain blonde I once knew,” Blake teased, slipping her arms around Yang’s middle. 

“Hey!” Yang protested, wiggling halfheartedly out of Blake’s grip. “I wasn’t _that_ bad!” she protested as the five-minute warning bell rang to signal the end of lunch. 

“No, no,” Blake smirked, shoving lightly at Yang’s shoulders to trip her up. “You _have_ gotten better with age, dear.”

“Thank you!” Yang exclaimed, tossing her hands in the air with an eye roll.

“ _Now_ you only sprain your _wrist_ whenever you trip over your own feet while you’re too busy staring at me, instead of breaking your whole arm,” Blake laughed as she left the office, leaving Yang stunned and defeated.

“It’s not my fault you’re so incredibly hot!” she pouted before heading back to the gym to prep for her next class.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope y'all like sam and riley so far! they've been a lot of fun to write, i kinda have a bit of backstory for sam for sure, and a bit for riley. but it's been fun unfolding their characters n stuff for this :) so i hope you like them too!!


End file.
